ARTICLES ABOUT HOME AFFORDABLE MODIFICATION PROGRAM BY DATE - PAGE 3

First the good news: Illinois is about to get more than $1 billion to help folks avoid losing their homes to foreclosure. It's our share of the $25 billion legal settlement reached last month between big mortgage lenders and the state attorneys general who sued them for sleazy tactics like "robo-signing" foreclosure documents. The bad news? Programs being created now to distribute this dough - programs that invite distressed homeowners to contact their lenders to see if they qualify - don't work very well.

A Chicago homeowner who was denied participation in a federal mortgage modification program can sue her lender for fraud and other claims, a federal appellate court said this week. Lori Wigod sued Wells Fargo in 2010 after the bank had deemed her ineligible for the Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP. Wigod alleged that Wells Fargo had broken a promise in 2009 to permanently reduce her loan payments on a more than $700,000 mortgage after giving her a four-month trial modification.

A Chicago homeowner who was denied participation in a federal mortgage modification program can sue her lender for fraud and other claims, a federal appellate court said this week. Lori Wigod sued Wells Fargo in 2010 after the bank had deemed her ineligible for the Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP. Wigod alleged that Wells Fargo had broken a promise in 2009 to permanently reduce her loan payments on a more than $700,000 mortgage after giving her a four-month trial modification.

The Obama administration on Monday announced its latest attempt to stem the nation's housing crisis, this one focusing on borrowers who pay their mortgage on time but are unable to refinance their loans because their home values have plummeted. Officials said changes made to streamline the government's Home Affordable Refinance Program could more than double the number of borrowers who have refinanced their loans under the program from the current 894,000. Still, that would be far below the 4 million homeowners who were expected to benefit from the refinancing program when it was announced two years ago. What may get lenders' phones ringing is the removal of a requirement that excluded borrowers from the program if the amount owed on the loan was more than 25 percent greater than the home's value.

The Obama administration on Monday announced a sweeping retooling of a program to help homeowners who are current but underwater on their mortgages refinance their loans, and mortgage lenders asked consumers to be patient and understand that the program was not a "silver bullet" to solve the housing crisis. Officials said changes made to streamline the government's Home Affordable Refinance Program could dramatically increase the number of borrowers who have refinanced their loans under the program past the current 894,000, but they stopped short of specifying how many borrowers may be eligible or may participate.

For the millions of homeowners with mortgages underwater there are no easy answers. Should they keep paying and hope the market improves? Try for a loan modification? Cut their losses and walk away? Gerri Detweiler, personal finance expert for Credit.com, explains the pros and cons of several options for those homeowners who owe more on their mortgage than the property is worth). Stay and pay. People feel attached to their homes, so Detweiler says their first impulse is often to stay put and keep sending in mortgage checks, even if it doesn't make financial sense in the long run. "Is it realistic for you for awhile?"

The Federal Housing Finance Administration confirmed Friday that it is re-evaluating the government's home refinancing program, with an eye toward expanding it to more consumers. In a statement, FHFA acting director Edward DeMarco said the agency has been re-evaluating the administration's Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP), introduced more than two years ago with the aim of helping homeowners avoid foreclosure by refinancing their mortgages to more affordable terms. As of June 30, more than 838,000 borrowers have refinanced their mortgages through HARP, less than expected.

The house at the end of our alley has been vacant for almost four years and we — the neighbors and I — figure it's a matter of time before something bad happens. A fire? Metal thieves? A child abduction? Bad things happen when a house is allowed to sit empty month after month, season after season. Cook County Circuit Court records show Charter One Bank filed for foreclosure in February 2008. The case has kicked around the docket month after month, motion after motion.

The Obama administration on Thursday again publicly slapped Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase for their efforts to modify troubled mortgage loans, announcing that for a second quarter it would withhold incentive payments to the two. The monthly report on the government's Home Affordable Modification Program, which assesses the 10 largest loan servicers' efforts quarterly, found that the two companies "remain in need of substantial improvement," according...

Federal judges in Chicago and Boston have issued rulings in the past three weeks that keep alive two long-running lawsuits brought by homeowners, including two suburban Chicago residents, who have suffered as a result of the housing crisis. The rulings do not mean a resolution of either case is near, but the final outcome of both cases could affect hundreds of thousands of homeowners, so they bear watching. That's because the next step in the process is to try to get the cases certified as class-action suits.